<h1>Brennan Manning</h1> A Ragamuffin Who made it Home

I never got to meet Brennan Manning. He died yesterday. He always reminded me of my father. Perhaps this is because his teachings and interpretation of God's Grace permeated my home ever since The Ragamuffin Gospel was published back in the early 1990s. It was an idea that my whole family could grasp,

“My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it. “

Brennan was a Korean War Vet, renegade priest who

spent most of his priesthood working with (and I mean deeply with) the world's poorest and most disenfranchised. He left the priesthood in the late 1960s, early 1970s and started writing about the Love and Grace of Jesus. He lived by, talked through, and walked this out until yesterday, April 12, 2013, when this Ragamuffin went home.

What made Brennan Manning different in my eyes was that unlike most preachers who, in words or actions, say, “I used to be a bad sinner” Brennan was open and honest about his currently level of sin. But I guess being in and out of rehab will do that to you. Every time he fell off the wagon he came back with a new bump or bruise that reminded him, and us, of everyone's need for a Gracious and Loving Savior.

The Ragamuffin Gospel was the first Christian theology type book I ever read. I was eighteen and I was slogging through the complex, yet accessible language I saw what I new everybody else in the world needed to see. I saw that,

“The gospel declares that no matter how dutiful or prayerful we are, we can't save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient.”

Aside from the Bible it was the most important book I've ever read. It clarified how I see Jesus, myself, and the World. It was a breath of fresh air into my 18 year old soul to know that salvation was for those who needed saving not for those who were Hell bent on looking proper.

This post may very well serve my own catharsis, but I'm okay with that. I hope that through this you can, in whatever way, see that you are a sinner in need of Grace. I say that not from a stand point of arrogance against you, but partly thanks to Brennan Manning, I say that from a stand point of gratefulness towards God for my own sins being covered.

Brennan, welcome home.